Palestinian Anonymouse

At the conclusion of today's installment of the Times' thousand-part series on the evils of Israel's settlement policies in the West Bank comes this passage:

The latest Israeli settlement plans were "a stab in the back for everyone who has worked to have negotiations," said a Palestinian official involved in the talks, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "It legitimizes the fears everybody had that the negotiations are just a smoke screen."

This looks to me like a violation of the Times policy on the use of confidential sources, which states:

We do not grant anonymity to people who use it as cover for a personal or partisan attack. If pejorative opinions are worth reporting and cannot be specifically attributed, they may be paraphrased or described after thorough discussion between writer and editor. The vivid language of direct quotation confers an unfair advantage on a speaker or writer who hides behind the newspaper, and turns of phrase are valueless to a reader who cannot assess the source.

If the Israeli settlement moves are such a "stab in the back," can't the Times find a Palestinian Arab official who will say so on-the-record, without being granted anonymity? The newspaper's failure to do so suggests that perhaps the real news is not the story the Times seems to want to tell — Israeli settlement move disrupts talks — but the story the Times doesn't seem to want to tell — talks go on notwithstanding Israeli settlement moves that the Palestinians are less upset about than the Times editors are.

The Times article gives no explanation to readers of why the Palestinian official should be granted anonymity. The Israeli government spokesman in the article, Mark Regev, is on the record, as is the American secretary of State, John Kerry.